In
addition to monographic series, uniform titles are established for
laws, constitutions, statutes, charters, treaties, conventions,
declarations, guidelines, principles, standards, etc. In UNBIS, the
uniform title also has been used as a catch-all for things that in
standard library practice would be treated as 650
subject
headings, for example, commemorative days, decades and years, medals
and awards. For the sake of consistency, it is advisable to continue in
this vein.

UNBIS
practice has deviated in other ways from AACR2 with respect to uniform
titles. Plans, for example, would
normally be treated as corporate names (see List
of Ambiguous Entities) but in UNBIS practice they are treated
as uniform titles if they
appear in a UN document in the form of a text which is debated and
adopted (comparable, as such, to a
legal instrument). When such a text is contained in a UN document,
indexing practice stipulates that a uniform title added entry be
created in field 730. Early on, programmes and projects also were
treated as uniform titles, but that practice is no longer followed.

Laws
are entered under the heading for the jurisdiction that promulgated
them. The MARC21 standard specifies that the name of the law should
appear in subfield $t (Title of a work), but it has
long been UNBIS practice to include both the jurisdictional body and
uniform title in subfield $a. However, in lieu of
using $t, the uniform title is enclosed within square
brackets. A separate heading is created for each language
edition.

(Note: when a new publication containing
the text of a constitution is catalogued, it is very important to
verify whether it is in fact a new constitution or simply a new
edition, perhaps with recently adopted amendments-there is a tendency
to confuse the two-and there probably are many erroneous headings in
UNBIS as a result).

The
unofficial short title «popular
name»
of a law is preferred as the established uniform title entry (see AACR2
25.15A2). Add variant forms of the name as cross-references.

110 1 _ $a United States. [American Jobs Creation Act
of 2004]410 1 _ $a United
States. [Act to Amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to Remove
Impediments in Such Code and Make Our Manufacturing, Service, and
High-Technology Businesses and Workers More Competitive and Productive
Both at Home and Abroad]410 1 _ $a United States. [Public Law 108-357]

Earlier in
UNBIS practice, however, laws were entered, not under the jurisdiction,
but directly under the title of the law, with the jurisdiction added as
a qualifier. Probably the majority of laws in the UNBIS database are in
this format:

130 _ 0 $a Export Administration Act 1979 (United
States)

A collection of laws of a
single country is assigned a uniform title with the addition «Laws, etc.» (variation: «Laws, statutes, etc,»).

If
a
publication contains the text of a treaty between two or three parties,
it is entered under the jurisdictional headings for the governments
that are parties to it. Add a uniform title comprising these elements:
the phrase "Treaties, etc."; the other party; and the date (year,
month, day) when the treaty was signed. As with laws, in UNBIS practice
the uniform title information is enclosed within square brackets,
whereas in standard MARC format, each element comprises a separate
subfield.

The
qualifier (Proposed)
may be used with uniform titles, but (Draft)
is added as the qualifier when the text
of a declaration, treaty, agreement, etc., exists but has not yet been
adopted. A uniform title entry should not be created until a draft text
actually exists.

130 _ 0 $a Declaration on the Rights and
Responsibilities of Youth (Draft)130 _ 0 $a International Year of Tourism (Proposed)

Names of computer programs and software are treated
as uniform titles; the GMD (generic material description) «Computer file» may be added.